El Futuro’s mental health clinics offered primarily in-person services, save for a telehealth program they’d designed for farmworkers. Now, in early 2021, it’s just the opposite: Thanks to COVID-19, the non-profit has pivoted to offering telehealth services only, with little to no in-person exceptions.
“If you would have told me a year ago that we would be able to function as a clinic doing telehealth, I would have said, ‘That’s not possible,’” said therapist Courtney Crawford, El Futuro’s clinical director. “It’s just amazing how it has become possible.”
El Futuro, a bilingual mental health clinic that serves the Spanish-speaking community, has two clinics — one in Durham and another in Siler City, located on 401 North Ivey Ave. It provides a bundle of bilingual services, including therapy, psychiatry, substance use treatment, and case management, which refers clients to outside agencies to serve other needs, like paying rent.
A year ago, Crawford also wouldn’t have imagined telehealth as El Futuro’s ticket to expansion — yet, that’s what it might prove to be. While schools, community organizations, and medical providers struggled with the digital divide and disengagement, virtual services allowed the not-for-profit El Futuro to expand its reach to those they couldn’t serve before and connect with clients in a new way.
“We’re excited — I’m excited — about getting back in person with people,” Crawford said, adding, “But we’re also excited about thinking about the possibilities for the future. … One of our main goals is to increase services, so provide more mental health services to more people, and telehealth might be a way that we can do that.”
Alvely Alcántara, LCSW
Rossy C. Garcia, MEd 
Katy Sims, MD 
Everardo Aviles, LCSW, LCAS (Eve)
As a medical anthropologist and social work researcher, Dr. Gulbas’ research embodies interdisciplinarity through the integration of applied theories of health and human development with qualitative and ethnographic methodologies. Her work seeks to understand how people—children, families, and providers—navigate complex sociocultural landscapes in the pursuit of mental health. Most of her work, to date, focuses attention on developing more robust interpretations of suicide risk. With funding from the National Institutes of Mental Health, this body of research has contributed to advancements in theoretical and empirical knowledge of the broader contexts within which youth suicide risk is situated. 
R. Gabriela Barajas-Gonzalez is a developmental psychologist and an assistant professor of Population Health at NYU Grossman School of Medicine. Dr. Barajas-Gonzalez is the principal investigator of a study that examines the impact of immigration-related threat and stress on school communities. She earned a PhD in developmental psychology from Columbia University and hold a BA in human biology from Stanford University. Dr. Barajas-Gonzalez is the daughter of Mexican immigrants and a first gen college student.
Dr. Parra-Cardona is an Associate Professor in the Steve Hicks School of Social Work (SHSSW) at the University of Texas at Austin. At the SHSSW, he serves as Coordinator for Mexico and Latin American initiatives. He also serves as Area Director for Research at the UT Austin Latino Research Institute. Dr. Parra-Cardona’s program of research is focused on the cultural adaptation of evidence-based parenting interventions for low-income Latinx populations in the US and Latin America.
Bianka Reese, PhD, MSPH is a research scientist and program evaluator specializing in adolescent and young adult sexual and reproductive health. Her previous research in the experiences of Latinx LGBTQ+ youth stems from her work as the Research and Evaluation Manager at SHIFT NC (Sexual Initiatives For Teens), where she led largescale evaluations of multilevel, community-based sexual health promotion initiatives and research projects aimed at elevating the voices of diverse youth in North Carolina. Dr. Reese is currently the Senior Research Strategist at Creative Research Solutions, LLC, an award-winning national evaluation, research, and assessment firm.
Tania Connaughton-Espino, MPH is an independent researcher focused on adolescent and young adult sexual and reproductive health. Her interest in the experiences of Latinx LGBTQ+ youth stems from her previous work with SHIFT NC (Sexual Initiatives For Teens), where she led the training and evaluation department, conducted capacity-building workshops for youth serving professionals including on the topic of how to be more affirming of LGBTQ youth, and from her extensive experience working with the Latinx population in NC.
Maru Gonzalez, EdD is an Assistant Professor and Youth Development Specialist in the Department of Agricultural and Human Sciences at North Carolina State University. Her areas of inquiry include youth development with a focus on activism, social justice, and the experiences of LGBTQ+ young people across familial, school, and community contexts. 
Nayeli Y. Chavez-Dueñas, PhD
Hector Y. Adames, PsyD